Fano Resonance Filters On Patterned Silicon Photonic Crystal Nanomembranes

ABSTRACTFANO RESONANCE FILTERS ON PATTERNED SILICONPHOTONIC CRYSTAL NANOMEMBRANESSANTHAD CHUWONGIN, M.S.The University of Texas at Arlington, 2008Supervising Professor: WEIDONG ZHOU Recently broadband reflectors and guided-resonance narrowband filters have been proposed to be the major components in communication and optical interconnect systems. Most work reported so far are based on free-standing membranes. Recent advances in the fabrication process have made it possible to pattern crystalline silicon nanomembranes (NMs) and transfer to foreign substrates. These NMs are transferable, stackable, bondable and manufacturable. In this thesis, we present two-dimensional photonic crystal broadband reflectors and narrowband filters based on Fano resonances on patterned silicon nanomembranes, on Si, glass, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates. For broadband reflectors, spectral trimming was achieved by partially or even completely removing the buried oxide layer (BOX) on silicon-on-insulator (SOI), by controlling SiO2 thin film deposition or spin-on-glass coating surrounding the silicon nanomembranes. Resonance tuning was demonstrated with a turning range over 50 nm for both blue- and red-shifts, making it a practical design tool for Fano resonance trimming for both narrow band filters and ultra-compact broadband reflectors. For narrowband filters, the characteristics of Fano filters based on transferred silicon nanomembranes on PET and glass substrates are reported. Both experimental and theoretical analyses were performed on angular- and polarization-dependent transmission properties